Related Tags:

LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – A man who documented his escape from the rising waters of the Big Thompson River returned to find his home severely damaged, but Paul Sterling still considers himself lucky.

When Sterling fled his home on the Big Thompson, the river was raging.

“Oh my God, I hope when I get home I have a house,” Sterling can be heard saying in the video he shot while fleeing the Big Thompson Canyon.

The 10-year Big Thompson resident beat a hasty retreat. Five days later he returned, again documenting his journey. He drove past downed trees and a washed away highway.

He drove with angst and anticipation. His greenhouse was gone, his riverfront deck in shambles. The ground floor of his house was saturated.

“It flooded everything. I’m in mud now,” Sterling said.

His office and shop are ruined and will have to be rebuilt, but Sterling says his $25,000 in damage is a far better fate than what many of his neighbors are facing.